I have been looking at the different feed readers available for my iPhone and found that there are a few good ones out there right now.  I started using NetNewsWire when I first got my phone but switched over to Newsstand.  Now, I am not sure if that is best feed reader for me seeing that there is Byline and Reeder which both look very interesting and even the free MobileRSS since I am using Google Reader on my computers.

I would love for you to take this poll and leave a comment as to why you like/love the feed reader that you currently use and if you have changed from other readers.

I use Flickr to store my photos and have been frustrated by the fact that there hasn’t been a decent app for uploading and browsing photos for the iPhone. Newcomer Plickit Pro ($3.99) lets me upload multiple photos off my iPhone with ease and offers some nice ways of browsing photos.

When you start Flickit Pro there is a menu on the bottom of the screen where you can view photos from your account and favorite people, view recent activity, explore Flickr, upload photos and view/change your settings. The interface is very appealing to the eye and easy to use.

I love the ease of uploading photos. You can take a photo from within the app or upload from your library and camera roll. I choose to upload from camera roll since I use ProCamera to take my photos. When I have taken multiple photos and want to upload them with new titles, descriptions, tags, into different sets and groups I can do it in a straight forward manner. First, I select the photos from the camera roll by clicking on them and a checkmark appears next to the photos I select. Then, a screen shows the photos and I click on each photo to add title, description, tags and set. Then I hit the upload button and I’m all set, the photos are uploaded to Flickr with all the information needed, I don’t have to edit it on Flickr and I don’t have to put all the photos in the same set like in other apps.

The other nice feature in Flickit Pro is called PhotoFlow which is a nice way of browsing photos in the app. It’s like CoverFlow for music where you can browse photos in a nice flowing manner by swiping through to view photos. My one gripe here is that it only works in portrait mode, I would love to be able to do a PhotoFlow in landscape mode.

You can also browse individual photos using a swiping gesture to move backwards and forwards between photos, and also view photo details including comments. Photo browsing features are enabled for all types of browsing including favorite contacts, searches, Flickr Interestingness (current favorites on Flickr), nearby photos and your groups.

One thing you can’t do when browsing photos is save them to your iPhone which would be great. You can email them and favorite a photo but not save it. Hopefully that is something that will be added in a future update.

Is FlickitPro worth $3.99? For me it is since I have a premium account with Flickr. I will start adding new sets and taking more photos while I am out with my iPhone.

Do you use Flickr? Do you have a favorite app for uploading photos to Flickr? Will you try FlickitPro?

Flickit Pro Rating: (4/5)

Since I have been sick most of this week and not written much for blog posts I thought I would share with you articles I have read of the web this week that might be of interest to you.

• 10 Jailbreak Apps for iPhone to Boost Your Productivity – iPhone Download Blog
• iHome+Sleep – A Free, Pretty Alarm Clock App – iPhone Alley
• Blue Plate Special: ProCamera Basic For iPhone – Gear Diary.  NOTE: ProCamera Basic is on sale for FREE and ProCamera is on sale for $1.99.
• View MobileMe Photos, Videos With MobileMe Gallery App – iPhone Alley
• Infinidock App for Jailbroken iPhones Lets You Enable a Horizontal Scrolling iPhone Dock – iPhone Hacks
• Geodelic Location-based Discovery for iPhone – The iPhone Blog
• iType2Go Pro Review for iPhone and iPod Touch – APPMODO
• Dear Aunt TUAW: What’s the low down on battery packs? – The Unofficial Apple Weblog
• Facebook iPhone App 3.1.2 Released: Fixes Bug Causing Incorrent Matches in Address Book Sync & More – iPhone Hacks
• Review: Switch Easy Torrent for iPhone 3G/3GS – Gear Diary
• Apple selects iAccounts for iTunes Cover Feature AppStore Essentials – Crazy Mike’s Apps
• Simplenote Goes All Freemium On Us – iPhone Alley
• AT&T matches Verizon, reduces iPhone unlimited monthly plan by $30 – AppleInsider
• How To Use NPR’s Free iPhone/iPod Touch News App – makeuseof.com
• Synotes: Beautiful Notes App for iPhone – MacStories

So, check out this articles and share any that you found this week that may be of interest to us.

Do you wish you could do more with your contacts on your iPhone or iPod Touch like sorting them by state, sending out a group email or see upcoming events like birthdays and anniversaries?  Fast Contacts does that and more and for the next 5 to 7 days is free, otherwise it costs $2.99.

I downloaded Fast Contacts a couple of days ago when it first became free and have been very happy with the app as well as the response from the company when i had a question (more about that later).  The first thing I noticed was a number on the icon badge which represented the number of upcoming events, a couple of friends’ birthdays.  What a nice surprise!  I had been looking for an application that kept track of birthdays for me.

The second thing I checked out was the coverflow option to scan my contacts.  All you need to do is open up the app, be on a page with a list of contacts and turn your iPhone/iPod Touch landscape and coverflow appears, just like when you are browsing songs in the iPod app.  A lot of my contacts don’t have photos so it was nice to find that i can show only contacts with photos and then brush through the coverflow.  Just think about it, you can’t remember a contacts name but what they look like and know you took a photo of them (you must be very popular!), you can just flip through till you find the photo of them and voila, you have a name!

With Fast Contacts you can:

• Visualize contacts using coverflow.
• Be notified of events like birthdays and anniversaries.
• Search your contacts by name, company, phone numbers, address, title and even notes.
• Sort contacts alphabetically, by events, prefix, first name, last name, suffix, nickname, job title, department, city, state, zip and country.
• Add, modify and delete contacts.
• Send out email by group (groups must be created outside of Fast Contacts).
• Choose from 5 different themes to display contacts.

I like Fast Contacts.  It feels like I have more control of my contacts than with the Apple app.  There are a few things to note or ask for.

• I noticed that my default ringtone within the app was set as Marimba which it isn’t in my settings.  I use Custom Ringtones for both my default and many of my contacts.  While Fast Contacts doesn’t display Custom Ringtones it also doesn’t change your ringtones.  I sent an email to Spiceloop, the creators of the app and they responded quickly that it was a limitation of Apple’ iPhone software development kit.  While you can change your ringtones in Fast Contacts I won’t because of the limitation on Custom ringtones
• The buttons on the status bar are small, I wish they were a bit larger to work with.
• It would be nice to have the option to receive push notifications for upcoming events.

If you can get Fast Contacts while it is free I will say you are getting a great bargain.  Otherwise you will have to pay the price to have what Fast Contacts bill themselves as, a “Contacts application on steriods!”

Rating: (4.5/5)

I love a good deal and hate being out in a store and buy something only to find out later I could have gotten it cheaper down the road or online.  Having the iPhone 3GS and autofocus I found a few apps that will read the barcode off a package and bring up search results from stores showing lowest prices and more.  A shoppers dream!  The three apps that I have tried are RedLaser ($1.99,), ShopSavy (free, ), and the recently released Barcode Reader (free, ).

RedLaser has a lot of great features with a price tag.  It says it works with all iPhones though I only have experience with my 3GS which has autofocus.  Open up Redlaser, press on the scan button and it scans the barcode and comes back with a product result plus searches from Google Product Search and The Find Product Search (US and UK).

• Scans UPC, EAN, UPC-E and EAN-8 barcodes.
• Searches for prices on Google and The Find (US and UK).
• Local search done through The Find (US only).
• Email yourself a list of products, or send it to someone else.

I found RedLaser very easy to use.  My hands shake, mostly from the amount of coffee I drink, and my shaking has not effecting any results I have gotten, and I do get results for all of the barcodes I have read.  Note that you need to be running iPhone OS 3.1 or later for RedLaser to work.

The second app is ShopSavy which is a free alternative to RedLaser.  Again, it can be used on all of the iPhones and you point it at a barcode, it reads it and returns results from a database of over 20,000 online and local merchants.  For local results you can call the store and get directions, for all websites you can tell a friend (email link) and browse the merchant’s website.  You can also see reviews for the item. Lastly, you can use ShopSavy with iPhone OS 3.0 or later

While ShopSavy has some nice features, one being that it links to a larger photo of the item, shows the item in color, shows reviews, and links to directions to local stores, I had problems.  My shaky hands were the culprit.  The app would be reading the barcode and then reset itself on a number of items.  ShopSavy appeared to be more finicky and frustrating for me than RedLaser.  When  I was able to scan an item the results were useful but standing in a store trying to get my hands to stop shaking just wasn’t happening all the time.

The last app and the newest to the field is Barcode Reader which is also free.  While it is the only barcode app here that returns results from eBay it also is the only one that does not have local results.  It only promises to work on the iPhone 3GS, earlier models may need “additional gadgets to improve photo quality.”  Searches eBay, Amazon and Google and scans UPC, EAN-13 and EAN-8 barcodes.  An added benefit is the ability to read more about the item on the seller’s website without leaving the app.  You do need to be running iPhone OS 3.1 or later for the app to work.

While I didn’t have the problem with shaky hands like I did with ShopSavy, most times scanning was fine, I did run into the problem of their server being busy and not getting any results.  Bummer!  Also, I missed the local search option that the other two apps offered when I was out shopping.  Lastly, Barcode Reader didn’t always return the lowest price of the three apps (ShopSavy and RedLaser returned very similar results).  Perhaps they need a deeper searching field for items.

Overall, for me, I got what I paid for.  RedLaser did the best job for me while out and about.  Even at home, in a controlled environment, my hands shook too much for ShopSavy to read barcodes everytime while RedLaser has yet to fail me.  If you have steady hands you may not run into the problem I did with ShopSavy and save yourself a couple of dollars in the meantime.  Lack of local searching and server issues put Barcode Reader in last place.

Do you use any of these apps when you are out shopping or have one to suggest?  My preference is RedLaser, what’s your favorite?